Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ For they no longer dared to ask him another question.

Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

About Nick Punch, O.P.

Nick joined the Dominican Order in 1961 and was ordained a priest in December 1966. Since then, he has worked in parishes, schools and universities. Nick was Provincial of the Australian New Zealand province of Dominicans from 1981-1988. Since 1991, Nick has been preaching full time with the Thomas More Center at churches in USA, Australia and New Zealand, appreciating the many ways that parish teams reach the people.

2 thoughts on “How does God decide?”

First let me say how wonderful it is to be able to hear your wise words and kind voice even when you’re so far away. Please continue to do these sermons so that I can always feel you are with me.

Secondly, I appreciate and support your explanation of the separateness of how we live our lives on Earth and what we’ll expect in Heaven. It had never occurred to me to even question how we would be interacting or paired in Heaven as I believe as you said there will only be happiness and love for us to give and receive. However, I found this sermon comforting in the affirmation of that – of the two separate worlds. It also reinforced how Jesus could handle those meant to trip him up and I admire Him for that and see ore clearly the human side of his existence which of course makes me feel closer to me.